The Baronets Diary December 2024
This year’s High Sheriff’s Legal Service was once again held in the sumptuous surroundings of Derby Cathedral. In collaboration with the Dean, Peter Robinson, and the Cathedral staff ,the service for High Sheriff Ian Morgan was preceded by a lunch at the Museum of Making attended by local dignitaries and the Shrievalty posse. Over three hundred people heard Ian’s son Joe sing Handel’s ‘Where’er you walk ‘ and lessons read by Ian and Sylvia’s other son Tom and Wayne Madsen from Derbyshire County Cricket Club. The address was given by The Revd Bob Atkins Chaplain to the High Sheriff and also padre to the Cricket Club. The service is given ‘ in thanksgiving for our freedom under the law, the King’s peace and our national heritage’ and is in honour of all those involved in the judiciary and law and order. We are now planning for next year. It will be a hard act to follow.
One of the undertakings that an incoming High Sheriff has to do is to choose a Chaplain for his or her year. The Chaplain’s role is to offer pastoral care to the Sheriff as well as attending various services and events around the County in the year of Office. I am delighted that the Rev Alan Griggs has accepted the offer to be my Chaplain. Alan looks after the Rural Community Network and has farming and those in the sector at the heart of his ministry. Often to be seen at the Agricultural Centre in Bakewell on a Monday Alan will be well versed to aid me in the promotion of this essential community in Derbyshire that sometimes can be overlooked. Alan regularly attends all the agricultural shows from Longshaw to Ashbourne, from the County Show (sadly cancelled this year due to flooding) to Ashover as well as interacting with farming charities. His role will further highlight the people and places that provide us with both food and hospitality in the county.
I have written before about the rise in ash dieback in our part of the world but the demise of one particular ash tree has led to two new homes being erected on the Estate A huge hollow ash tree had to be felled on an Estate farm owing to it being too close to livestock and the family equestrian fields. On its demise a neighbour emailed the office to say that, on her frequent visits to the village, she had stopped her car and observed an owl nesting in the tree . The owl’s ‘home’ was now firewood and where would the said owl go? The answer is that the said ‘owl-watcher’ has obtained two smart owl boxes to be erected in the vicinity to replace the rotten tree as new homes for the owl family and they did not require planning consent from the Peak District National Park Authority! Good news.
The office receives some unusual comments on email from time to time. In October a couple who had been walking in the village wrote in to say that there was a ‘strong smell of cannabis ‘ as they passed a cottage under renovation and that ‘were the workforce smoking on duty?’. This particular team has been working on the total refurbishment of a farmhouse for the last six months and during that time I have never known anyone in the group even smoking a cigarette. On closer inspection it appears that there is a plant on the roadside that actually can smell of marijuana …it is called ‘ Blue-field madder’ and is a species of Sherardia and part of the herb family. I think that explains it!
Readers will know that Covid put paid to our Christmas extravaganzas when we dressed the Hall in various themes from Dickens to Mary Poppins and visitors enjoyed the stories and the creative arrangements made by David Walker ( formerly of our Vintage Sweet Shop). But now we are to reintroduce a Christmas event at Tissington where I will host a ‘Festive Afternoon Tea ‘ in the Main Hall with Christmas trees abounding and a few short seasonal tales. Tickets for both days are priced at £35 per head to include a glass of fizz and the dates are Wed 4th and Thurs 12th Dec. For tickets email events@tissingtonhall.co.uk.
Finally my wife Fiona and I and all of the team at Tissington and at Herbert’s Tearooms wish all readers a Very Happy Christmas and a Prosperous 2025..a year when the FitzHerbert family will be 900 years old.